Yes, I titled this blog post in the third person, I know what you’re thinking! 😉
Anyway, my name is Wade McMaster and I started this website: Martial Arts Designer.
Why would you care about who I am? Well if you want a website created or designed by me you may be curious about my background so you can make your decision a little more educated.
This is also my way of trying to be as transparent as I can, I just want you to know who it is you could potentially be working with before having to make any decisions.
There are two main themes we’re looking at here: Martial Arts and Web Design, so I cover my history in both below.
Web Design & Blog Background
I was just a kid when I built my first website, at 16 years old in 2000.
I had a passion for design, digital art and web design and spent a lot of my free time outside of school creating and redesigning my website. It was an obsession I knew I’d make my career and after earning my Diploma in Multimedia. So after school and my diploma, I started designing professionally almost straight away.
I’ve been in the graphic design and website design industry full time for 13+ years, and still creating and running my own websites after hours. My second web design site is called “We’ll Build Your Blog” and it caters for people everywhere (yes, outside martial arts even!) who want websites designed. Whilst designing websites for other people, I have personally run several blogs. Over the years though I sharpened my focus on the website design service but left my favorite website, Martial Arts Action Movies running.
One of the things I write about on this website is traffic generation (yet to, this post is very early in my stream of blog posts and articles). I have built this hobby website of mine up to receive on average 1200 visits per day and it continues to grow with little no effort by me!
I have also created a personal portfolio at WadeMcMaster.com. This website is quite young but showcases my best design work but is primarily an outlet for my digital art. Of course, being a personal portfolio this focus may change over the years as I don’t plan on pinning it down to any one topic.
But my main, personal passion is training in Martial Arts. Which lead to me combining my love of martial arts with my passion for website design as a career. So I started this business, Martial Arts Designer, to keep my head in both areas more often and to connect and help others who share my passion for Martial Arts.
Martial Arts Background
Chances are if you’re here, you’re a martial artist and you may be very curious on my background, considering this website is all about Martial Arts Web Design.
Martial Arts is, and always has been a part of my life. Ever since watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid (yes, that’s where it all started!) I got hooked. As I approached 10 I started boxing for a couple of years, I discovered Bruce Lee movies and eventually switched to Taekwondo. As a kid, I wanted to try everything, bouncing from Taekwondo to Karate, back to boxing and so on but never really committed.
Eventually the bouncing stopped and I decided to get serious, I started Aikido at the age of 20 under Darrin Beashel, later that year I added Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Once again, wanting it all I kept up all three styles for 3 years (along with a LOT of fitness training and weight lifting). But I eventually left Aikido holding a brown belt and stuck with Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which I still obsessively train in today.
I’ve stayed with the same academy and currently train at Maryborough Martial Arts Academy under a handful of instructors like Brad Ross, Bruce Maile, Brian Nielsen and Eddie Nielsen. I have been teaching classes for 7+ years and currently hold the rank of 3rd Degree in BJC Muay Thai, and Purple Belt in de Been Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
You now know my history, why not introduce yourself?
I’m always pretty keen to meet other people inside and outside of Martial Arts. We’re all part of one big family and if you have any questions about me, website design or martial arts, contact me via my contact page or check out our Facebook page. Thanks for reading!
